Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Eruvin in the News: New York, NY 6

New Eruv Constructed in Midtown

By Hilly Krieger

The Beren campus has been included within the boundaries of a new eruv erected in Manhattan earlier this summer, an endeavor involving a host of Yeshiva University administrators and rabbis.

The project, which was largely funded by SCW’s Office of the Dean, required much complicated construction and was closely monitored to ensure that it was built according to the highest standards of halakha. The initiative is expected to drastically improve the quality of Shabbatot on campus, as carrying will now be permitted in the vicinity.

Efforts to erect the eruv were initiated two years ago by Rabbi Yaakov Kermaier of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, in conjunction with Machon L'horaa, led by Rabbi Shraga Klien of Monsey, who will inspect it on a weekly basis. Read on...

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Eruvin in the News: Dallas, TX

Rabbi's Weekly Maintenance Keeps Faithful in Line

By Harriet P. Gross

Suppose you're an Orthodox Jew, upholding in daily life all your faith's many traditions. Sabbath worship is high on the list. But "work" isn't permitted on that holy day, and today's Judaism counts driving as work. So you'll choose a home within walking distance of your synagogue.

However, you're faced with another dilemma: "transferring and transporting from domain to domain" – moving anything from one place to another – can't be done either. So you're not able to push your baby's stroller or carry an umbrella if it's raining. When you'd like to accept a neighbor's invitation for lunch after services, you can't contribute a cake or casserole from home. What's left but to stay home yourself? Read on...

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Eruvin in the News: Manchester, England

Manchester Plans Eruv

By Bernard Josephs

Moves are afoot to set up the first official eruv outside London.

The plan under discussion in north Manchester would provide a notional boundary within which Orthodox Jews would be able to carry certain items on Shabbat. Read on...

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Eruvin in the News: Sunnyside, Queens

A Slender Thread to Knit a Neighborhood

By Jake Mooney

Looking north from the 46th Street platform of the elevated No. 7 train in Sunnyside, Queens, visitors can see the Oki Japanese Restaurant, the offices of the Turkish American Multicultural Educational Foundation, the Colombian bakery El Buen Sabor and an Irish pub called McGuinness’s.

A block away on 43rd Avenue, the Young Israel of Sunnyside synagogue is relatively inconspicuous in this cultural mixing bowl. It occupies space in the basement of a brick apartment building, with only a green awning and a small sign on the door to identify it. Read on...

Eruvin in the News: New York City

Want to Set Up an Eruv? First, Call the D.O.T.

By Jake Mooney

If you’re an Orthodox Jew and you want to put up an eruv, a zone where rules against carrying things in public on the Sabbath are relaxed, you might be wise to consult a panel of scholars and experts to help keep you on the right side of thousands of years of Jewish law and tradition.

Rabbi Yonah Levant, the spiritual leader of the Young Israel of Sunnyside synagogue in Queens, did just that during the months of planning for his congregation’s new eruv, going up any day now, that I wrote about for this Sunday’s City section.But if, like Rabbi Levant, you want an eruv within the five boroughs, the city’s Department of Transportation has some rules of its own. You’ve seen the Hebrew National hot dog commercials: “We answer to a higher authority”? This is sort of like the opposite. The department is less concerned with your moral good standing than with protecting the city from liability, and its residents and light poles from errant wires.

“Coordinating the eruv application process allows us to ensure that any future construction projects take into account the existence of the eruv’s wires,” said Ted Timbers, a spokesman for hte department. He said it also gives the city “the ability to inform the community that they may have to be temporarily moved during the construction.”

The department sends interested parties a packet of paperwork that includes two-and-a-half single-spaced pages of eruv regulations and a self-certification letter in which applicants promise to pay all costs and expenses associated with the eruv, absolve the city from any legal responsibility for it, and concede that the City can take it down at any time. Read on...

PART 3: THE TRUTH REGARDING THE STAMFORD HILL ERUV

Their argument: But the Mishnah Berurah argues that most poskim uphold asu rabbim u’mevatlei mechitzta , so according to most poskim the...